One, Two, Three and Many
The Advaita Vedantins are Vivartavadins, that is, they understand that the "first cause" is apparitional. And in that domain their map is quite adequate. But in the domain of transformational causation, which follows from the first cause, their map is somewhat sketchy. The map of European science, on the other hand, is quite thorough in the domain of transformational causation but simply points, through Einstein's equations, to the underlying apparition. What we call "square one physics" arises by apparition. What we call the physics of square two to square twelve arises by transformation. The problem of joining the maps is the problem of joining square one and square two. The problem is how, from the nature of the reality, which the Advaita Vedantins call Brahman (or Atman), do we come, through apparitional causation, which the Advaita Vedantins call Maya, to the world of transformational causation -- to the perception of the primordial hydrogen, a gas made up of positive and negative electrical particles (the protons and the electrons), widely dispersed through space and falling together by gravity to galaxies and stars Why do we see hydrogen and not something else?
Swami Ashokananda once said, "Give me two and I'll give you a million." The problem is how to get two. That is the problem of the first cause and we have seen that it is apparitional and that through it we already get three and many. But let us go through it step by step, starting with a quote of the first lines of the Panchamahabhuta Sutras, a little-known text on Advaita Vedanta, wich itself begins with a quote from Chandogya Upanishad.
1) All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that visible world as beginning, ending and breathing in it, the Brahman.
2) Now mind is, as it were, a sense of otherness in That.
3) In the changeless. In the infinite. In the undivided.
4) Its appearance is through the Gunas of which ignorance, Maya, is made.
5) Concealing, projecting, yet revealing, in the projected, something of that which is concealed.
6) As something of the rope is revealed in the snake for which it is mistaken.
7) As if, being hidden, through the veiling power of Tamas, the nature of Brahman, through the revealing power of Sattva, shone in the otherness for which, through the projecting power of Rajas, it is, as it were, mistaken.
8) By this Vivarta, the changeless, the infinite, the undivided as Asti-Bhati-Priya.
9) Giving rise to Parinama (transformation) in the causal, the subtle and the gross.
The thrust of the eighth and ninth sutras is that it is the nature of the reality, seen through the revealing power of Sattva as Asti-Bhati-Priya, that drives whatever is driven in the phenomenal universe, whether physical or mental. We have seen that in the physical universe the changeless shows as inertia, the infinite as electricity and the undivided as gravity. But in the mental world also we feel driven. We feel driven toward peace and love and freedom. The search for the changeless shows as the yearning for peace, the search for the undivided shows as love, and the search for the infinite shows as the yearning for freedom. It is not that our bodies don't fall in search of the undivided. They do. It's just that our brains are genetically programmed to re-direct the search in ways which lead, through action, through transformational causation, to the perpetuation of the race.
To living beings like ourselves, love appears quite different from gravity. The yearning for freedom and the self-repulsion of like electrical charge appear quite different. And the yearning for peace appears as quite different from inertia — the tendency of matter to continue in a given state of motion. But as seen from the standpoint of the apparitional mechanism by which these pairs arise, they do not seem very different at all. They are simply the effect of what, in Sanskrit, is called Asti-Bhati-Priya. They are simply the nature of the reality seen through space and time, and it is only the situations in which they arise that make love and gravity seem so different. Love arises between living beings who see themselves as perceivers. Gravity arises between material particles which are seen by the living organisms as the perceived. The yearning for peace and love and freedom is related to the genetic programming of living organisms which see themselves as the perceiver, whereas the existence of gravity, electricity and inertia is seen even in the perceived. These two apparently different manifestations of Asti-Bhati- Priya are said, in Sanskrit, to function in different spaces. The yearning for peace and love and freedom is said to be in the mind-space while gravity, electricity and inertia are said to function in the great-space.
The Advaita Vedantins speak of three states of consciousness, the causal, the subtle and the gross. Each is said to be associated with its own space. The causal state is associated with what is called the consciousness spacer Chidakasha. In that space there is said to be no consciousness of plurality, but only the consciousness of the duality of "I" and "Thou" the perceiver and the perceived. There, Asti-Bhati-Priya is represented as Shiva-Shakti. The prostrate figure of Shiva represents the supreme peace of the changeless. The female figure of Shakti (power), dancing on his chest, represents the undivided and the infinite. Her blissful aspect represents the undivided, while her terrible aspect represents the infinite. If it be asked why the infinite is represented by terror rather than by freedom, the answer is that Shiva-Shakti represents the Perceived rather than the perceiver. Infinitude in the perceiver is freedom. In the perceived it is terror. In each of the other spaces there is said to be the consciousness of plurality as well as duality. In the subtle state there is consciousness of a plurality in the perceiver, the consciousness of a plurality of minds (egos) in the mind space (Chittakasha). And in the gross state, which corresponds to the perception of the physical universe, there is the perception of a plurality of things in the great space (Mahakasha), the space which seems to separate the stars.
Given the nature of the reality and the nature of the apparition as described by the Advaita Vedantins, it is easy to see how these three spaces arise. If what exists is one and you see it as two, then you, the perceiver, must be one of those two. (Otherwise there are three already.) This is the duality of the perceiver and the perceived, and their separation, like any apparent separation, must be seen in a space. Space is that which seems to separate two or many.
Given this duality, if a plurality is seen, it must be seen on this duality. The plurality may be seen either in the perceiver or in the perceived. The former gives rise to the perception of a plurality of minds (egos) in the mind-space, and the latter, to the perception of a plurality of protons in the great-space. If it be asked why protons rather than electrons or something else, the answer is that it is the protons, not the electrons or something else, which have their rest mass related to the gravitational plurality as well as to the electrical duality. If the proton is the canoe, the electron is the outrigger. It is purely electrical.
We can understand the attraction between the proton and the electron as the undividedness seen in the duality, just as we can understand the gravitational attraction of the protons for each other as the undividedness seen in the plurality. As a member of the duality, the proton sees itself (if we may use such language) as separated from the electron. As a member of the plurality, it sees itself as separated from the rest of the universe. But in either case it sees itself as small, and we can understand the self- repulsion of like charge as simply the infinitude seen in the apparent smallness. The gravitational energy of the primordial hydrogen can be understood as priya, the undivided seen in the apparently divided. The electrical energy of the primordial hydrogen can be understood as bhati, the infinite seen in the apparently finite. Bhati and Priya drive the change in which the changeless is seen as Asti, inertia. In the great-space, this is our primordial hydrogen. It arises through apparition, through the appearance of pairs of opposites, space against time, mass against energy, gravity against electricity, plus against minus and spin-up against spin-down, without any change in the changeless.
We have seen how, through relativity theory, modern science has been driven to the conclusion of the Advaita Vedantins that the first cause must be apparitional. The screen through which we see the reality must be the screen of apparitional causation — what the Vedantins call Maya. We have also seen how, through relativity theory, modern science has been driven to the conclusion that the nature of the reality which underlies the multifarious diversity in the world of our perceptions must be changeless, infinite and undivided. Finally, and this is the important point, we have seen that, through a careful analysis of apparitional causation we are able, at last, to understand why we see a universe of hydrogen and not something else.